Choral Evensong - 21 October 2016

This retrospective webcast of Choral Evensong features the opening chorale to Cantata 10, Meine Seel erhebt den Herren, by Johann Sebastian Bach as the anthem, with the Magnificat setting by George Malcolm.

Bach composed this Cantata for the Marian Feast of the Visitation as the fifth cantata of the second annual cycle of chorale cantatas in Leipzig. Different from the other chorale cantatas of the cycle, the base for text and music is not a Lutheran chorale, but the German Magnificat. The Choir performed this Cantata in its entirety on Saturday 22 October accompanied by the College's resident period instrument ensemble, the St John's Sinfonia, led by College Musician-in-Residence, Margaret Faultless.

George Malcolm (1917 - 1997) was Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral between 1947 and 1959 during which he developed the boys sound, making them lose the typical Anglican ethereal sound for a more natural sound - "the sound boys make in playground" was how Malcolm sometimes put it, according to the obituary written by John Amis.